Thus, when our septic started to back up into the laundry room today, I found myself outside, digging through seven to eight foot piles of snow (with a compacted, icy, upper layer) in the desperate hope of finding the pipes. I used pictures on my phone that I took of the yard after the septic replacement as a guideline and then started digging my way through the snow in the approximate areas where I thought that the pipes might be. I felt like I was following a bizarre treasure map. Thankfully, Connor also came out to help. He approached from one direction, and I from another.
The natural snow depth--which I discovered by sinking into it--went past my waist. The icy, packed mounds were above my head. In fact, Connor was standing on the pile, with his feet above my head, for a little bit just to drive that point home.
Miraculously, I found the two pipes that I was searching for before the sun completely set. Unfortunately, they confirmed my fear that my tank is full, meaning that my new leach field is not working out as well as I had hoped. I still need to find the pipe to the leach field to see where the water level is there, but we will need our tank pumped one way or the other.
Now, I just need to shovel out a path so that the septic pump guys can get to the cleanout.